Fed into the fires of Gehenna

To the east and south of the Old City of Jerusalem is a deep gash in the landscape. It is identified as the Hinnom Valley. Today it is a lush area lending itself to picnics, outdoor concerts, and public events. However, to ancients it was known as the valley of the sons of Hinnom and later the Valley of Topheth. In the seventh century BCE it became Gehenna, a designation synonymous with hell, the place of burning.

Most notorious in the history of Hinnom is the practice of child sacrifice – placing infants and children in the fire to appease the ancient pagan god Moloch. Talmudic tradition asserts that the image of Moloch bore a brass calf's head adorned with a royal crown. He was represented as sitting on a brazen throne, arms extended to receive his youthful victims.

When, in the reign of King Josiah, the Book of the Law was rediscovered in the Temple in Jerusalem, the young king initiated a program to purge the land from idolatrous worship. Among his sweeping reforms was the defiling of "Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Moloch" (2 Kings 23:10). The power of God's word and the covenant with the Jewish people was revolutionary: "And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant (2 Kings 23:3).

King Josiah's commitment to reject pagan practices revived a divine standard reflective not only of Judaism but also of Christianity, which came later, and all civilized societies on the face of the earth.

The willful sacrifice of innocent children in the name of pagan gods remains a vile abomination that goes against everything true religion holds sacred.

IN MARCH a terrified 14-year-old Palestinian boy, Husam Abdu, stood with his hands up at the Hawara checkpoint near Nablus. Quick-thinking IDF paratroopers at the checkpoint discovered the lethal device strapped to his body. The child's mission was to get as close as he could to soldiers and detonate his bomb. His reward: NIS 100 and 72 virgin brides when he arrived in Paradise to celebrate his martyrdom in the presence of Allah.

A few days earlier, another boy, only 11 years of age, was asked to carry a bag through the checkpoint and deliver it to a woman waiting on the other side. He was given no explanation about the bag's contents. He, too, was discovered; and while the people who dispatched him frantically tried to detonate the device, IDF sappers were able to defuse it. Abdullah Quran was promised NIS 5.

These episodes are not random acts of spontaneous terror. They are part of a calculated, cold-blooded plan by ruthless Palestinian leaders who, to get what they want, are quite willing to send their children into the fires – all in the name of their god.

In a speech to the UN General Assembly in December 1988, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat brought greetings "from the children of the stones who are challenging occupation forces armed with warplanes, tanks and weapons – an unarmed Palestinian David facing a heavily armed Israeli Goliath."

In a January 2002 interview on PA TV, Arafat was asked what message he would like to send to the Palestinian children. His reply was reported by the Palestinian Media Watch: "The child who is grasping the stone, facing the tank; is this not the greatest message to the world when that hero becomes a shahid [dies for Allah]? We are proud of them."

This is what the "children of the stones" is all about. Youngsters are being fed into the fires for consumption by the world media and a susceptible international community.

These acts are not laudable expressions of pent-up anger and frustration. They are an intolerable, figurative return to Hinnom and the furnace of Moloch. Children sacrificed in the name of their god.

And who should be speaking out? If moderate Islam is more than merely a wish of the West, where are the voices of the majority of moderate Muslim clerics who claim love, peace, and compassion as hallmarks of their faith? Their compassion evidently does not extend to the world of the brainwashed children of the suicide belts and sack bombs. We wait to hear otherwise.

The writer, a pastor, is a leader in the Christian Zionist movement. His weekly Holy Land program can be heard on jpost.com

"...Think for a second, about a faith that rewards murderers with virgins suplied by an all powerful benevolent God. Is that not the sickest thing?"

My associate "Steve Omega" makes a very good point on the effectiveness of such a doctrine, vis-a-vis Arab society being strictly segregated sexually:

"... The rich people from Muslim lands come west to indulge their depravity in the fleshpots of western cities. Now western consumerism is hardly a perfect thing, but it does allow the greatest freedom for the greatest number of people. We are all freer than a Roman emperor to travel the world and indulge ourselves with vices should we so choose. As with the parable of the Tares, the good and the bad coexist side by side. But this access to instant gratification and moral temptation is what allows most of us to mature spiritually and overcome our lusts. To reject those things of our own free will, to indulge and repent are our own rites of passage. The mullahs would have all things they consider bad, removed and banned from society. To cover up women so we can’t be tempted, but all this does is really stoke the lusts and desires. So it is then that young suicide bombers can’t wait to get to paradise and satiate their lusts on the 72 virgins promised to them by hypocritical clerics. The Sept 11th terrorists like others before them used money to have a few good times in strip clubs and wash down the whiskey at the first opportunity to do so.

"It is in human nature that we can’t create a completely perfect or lust free society. Making things forbidden only perverts the lusts into other areas. Furthermore what kind of childlike mind must a Muslim have that he can’t see an unshrouded woman without being overwhelmed with lust? Like a child, they can’t see something without wanting it. So what kind of immature attitude is that? And clearly the idea of covering men up in a bag so that they aren’t inciting lust in the women isn’t a concern. You don’t abolish lust and desire just by removing the object. All that happens is that you are cloaking it, but the base instinct is still there. It is better to have temptations out in the open and trust that each can confront their inner demons as it were, and choose wisely. I forget where I saw it, but I once read that living under Islamic law is like being in a prison run by children."

You can see how the promise of unfettered sexual activity to a Palistinian young man could be an extremely seductive impetus to engage in a homicide bombing.

Sick? It's absolutely insidious.

The full article is on my site. It generates the second highest amount of traffic next to my "America At War" site. The author posts the link in numerous Islamist forums worldwide.

ISLAM: A Critical Review
By "Steve Omega"

The Sept 11th terrorists like others before them used money to have a few good times in strip clubs and wash down the whiskey at the first opportunity to do so.

When we lived in the middle east, my father from time to time would have to come back to the states for meetings and such. He always tells of the arabs on the foriegn carriers immediately changing out of traditonal garb and summoning the flight attendants for whiskey....before the flaps are even retracted or the wheels are in the well. I guess the piety and reverence that muslims preach is only a part time application, to be used only in ones own country. The glaring hypocrisy that is Islam, never ceases to amaze me with its double standards and just plain foolish laws and customs..

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